When you are fishing a 5wt, you will probably be playing all of your fish just by stripping the line with your hand. This would make the rod more important, but if you do hook a bigger fish a cheap reel can really hurt you.
Personally when I fish for trout I use the reel exclusively as a line holder and play all the fish by hand. It sounds like you are going to be targeting smaller fish so I would say that a cheap reel is ok for your situation.

If you ger into salmon and steelhead, or even larger trout, get a good reel over a good rod. Having a reliable drag is the most important thing when fighting a big fish.